Raw materials for decarbonisation : the potential for cobalt in the UK

Cobalt is a lustrous, silvery-grey metal with many physical and chemical properties that make it useful in a wide variety of chemical and metallurgical applications (Petavratzi et al., 2019). In the UK cobalt is used in high-performance alloys for the aerospace sector and in the cemented carbide, magnet and special steel industries. Cobalt chemicals are used in the manufacture of batteries, glass and ceramics (Petavratzi et al., 2019). The UK imports cobalt in several forms, chiefly as unwrought metal. In 2017 the total apparent consumption of cobalt in the UK amounted to about 1500 tonnes of contained cobalt metal (Bide et al., 2019).